I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to digital crossbar switches for loading and transferring data from multiple sources to multiple destinations. More particularly, the invention relates to a multiple-port digital crossbar switch that can be dynamically programmed and reprogrammed to load each port.
II. Background of the Invention
Digital crossbar switches require high speed data loading and transmission in order to allow their host computer to solve complex programs such as integrated circuit simulation, global weather predictions, Monte Carlo simulations in solid state particle physics or fault simulation of a nuclear reactor, to name just a few examples. The speed of digital crossbar switches can be related to the manner and method in which the data is received by the individual crossbar ports, stored within the ports, the number of ports and how read from the ports. Most often these and other system parameters are determined by hardwired connections which are physically inadequate for complex computations or lack program flexibility to allow adjustment for dynamically changing problematic conditions. It should thus be apparent that it is desirable to have a digital crossbar switch which is physically hardwired to achieve multiple permutations of data loading and unloading and which also is dynamically reprogrammable to allow changing of routing functions without interrupting data flow.